The Republican / File photoThe Hampden County Hall of Justice in Springfield.

BOSTON - An assistant clerk at Springfield District Court was easily the highest paid employee in the judiciary last year after his salary was boosted by a one-time payment to settle his lawsuit against the court system.

James M. Whalen, the assistant clerk, drew the $190,187 salary during a severe fiscal crisis when the Trial Court was cutting jobs through attrition and judges and other employees took days off without pay to save money.

Whalen’s salary also was provided during a leadership vacuum at Springfield District Court, one of the busiest in the state. Nearly five years after the death of the court’s clerk magistrate, the governor has failed to name a permanent replacement, creating frustration among lawyers and judges, according to the president of the Hampden County Bar Association.

Whalen, an assistant clerk since 1989 at Springfield District Court, topped last year’s salary list for 6,650 employees of the Trial Court and also made more than judges on the Appeals Court and the state Supreme Judicial Court.

Whalen could not be reached for comment.

By comparison, Judge Robert A. Mulligan, the state’s chief justice for administration and management, made $138,092 and Supreme Judicial Court Judge Robert L. Cordy made $144,827, according to a list by the state Office of the Comptroller.

Joan Kenney, a spokeswoman for the Trial Court, said the court lost a lawsuit brought by Whalen after he was laid off in September 2002.

“There’s really no one at the helm. It creates a lot of angst among the judiciary.”

- Thomas A. Kenefick, president, Hampden County Bar Association, on the lack of a permanent clerk magistrate at Springfield District Court

Kenney said the amount of damages was provided through a settlement judgment that essentially covered back pay.

Whalen was reinstated to his position in March 2004 in accord with a recall policy, she said in an e-mail.

Kenney said the settlement was processed last year.

She did not provide the amount of the settlement, but Whalen and other assistant clerks receive a salary of $84,869. Whalen last year received an additional $105,318 above that salary.

After he was laid off, Whalen filed an unsuccessful suit in U.S. District Court in 2004. He then filed a lawsuit in 2005 in Hampden Superior Court.

Trial court officials said that Whalen was laid off because of a budget deficit. The court retained at least two assistant clerks with less seniority than Whalen, according to court records.

Whalen was also among three assistant clerks chosen for layoffs, the records said. When extra money became available to retain one of three clerks selected for layoff, Whalen was passed over in favor of someone with less experience, according to a 2006 decision in the case by Judge Raymond J. Brassard.

The settlement came after Brassard refused to dismiss all of Whalen’s claims.

Whalen argued that he was wrongly removed from his position because the Trial Court and certain judges failed to follow procedures that govern job terminations “for cause” under state law. Whalen’s layoff, for example, was never approved by an advisory committee, as required by state law when an assistant clerk is laid off for cause.

Because he was a “tenured” employee with more than three years of service, Whalen said his selection to be laid off, instead of a clerk with less seniority, was effectively a removal for cause, not reasons related to the budget.

Meanwhile, Thomas A. Kenefick, a Springfield lawyer and president of the Hampden County Bar Association, said the lack of a permanent clerk magistrate at Springfield District Court is destabilizing the court.

The Springfield District Court clerk-magistrate’s job, a $110,000-per-year, lifetime post, has been open since the late clerk Robert E. Fein died in June 2006.

“There’s really no one at the helm,” Kenefick said. “It creates a lot of angst among the judiciary.”

Kenefick said the retirements of two assistant clerks has left Springfield District short-handed.

Kenefick said he believes that Gov. Deval L. Patrick may be close to appointing a new clerk magistrate, but he will believe it when he sees it.

A deputy press secretary for the governor could provide no information on Wednesday.

In March of last year, the Judicial Nominating Commission scotched a list of finalists for the job and advertised for new applicants. The deadline for applications was March 12 of last year.